Views from a United Church of Christ Minister

2004 Election

Monday, October 26, 2009

It isn’t every day you get mentioned in a book (at least not for me) but the pages of Bill Donahue’s “Secular Sabotage: How Liberals Are Destroying Religion and Culture in America” is the last place I wanted my name published.

Donahue is the president of the Catholic League, a far right political group that has designated itself as the watchdog and protector of Catholicism in America.

You might remember him from his comments in 2004 speculating as to whether or not Mel Gibson’s “Passion of the Christ” would win an Academy Award. Frank Rich reported at the time:

Will it be the Jews' fault if "The Passion of the Christ," ignored by the Golden Globes this week, comes up empty in the Oscar nominations next month? Why, of course.

"Hollywood is controlled by secular Jews who hate Christianity in general and Catholicism in particular," William Donohue, president of the Catholic League, explained in a colloquy on the subject recently convened by Pat Buchanan on MSNBC. "It's not a secret, O.K.?" Mr. Donohue continued. "And I'm not afraid to say it. That's why they hate this movie. It's about Jesus Christ, and it's about truth."

Donahue also took part in a series of events – Justice Sundays - put on by the Religious Right during the Bush Administration to promote then-President Bush’s judicial nominations. As I noted in 2005, at one appearance:

Donahue…called for a Constitutional amendment that would require a unanimous vote of the Supreme Court to overturn any decision of Congress. He spoke wildly against civil rights for gays and lesbians.

You can see where we might disagree theologically and politically.

Donahue mentions my name in a chapter of his book that assails Democrats in general and attacks the Clergy Leadership Network, a short-lived group of national religious leaders that formed in 2004 to oppose much of the Bush Administration’s policies.

The group‘s executive director, The Rev. Brenda Peterson, was tapped by the Democratic National Committee to serve as the religious outreach coordinator in the run up to the fall election between Bush and John Kerry.
At the time, Donahue unleashed a viscous attack on Rev. Peterson, a Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) minister, which questioned her moral values and patriotism.

Donahue sent out a press release at the time that noted Peterson’s ties to CLN and CLN’s ties to me. As he writes in the book now:

Incredibly, the CLN website also had link to an anti-Catholic site, Chuck Currie’s blog, which featured a piece titled “When Catholic Girls Go Wild” and to MoveOn.org, a left-wing group that has nothing to do with religion.

It was a satirical title from a post that reviewed a document released by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now the Pope) attacking feminism.

Cleary, I have a different theological perspective than official Roman Catholic Church teaching on many issues - such as the rights of women – but on many other issues – such as poverty, war and peace, and climate change – I deeply admire the Roman Catholic Church for their advocacy. My entire career has been spent in partnership with Roman Catholics working on issues where we have been able to find common ground.

But I’m not the only person Donohue finds anti-Catholic. As I’ve mentioned, he has issues with gays, lesbians, Jews and all Democrats. He also has issues with many other Roman Catholics. In fact, he devotes an entire chapter of his book to attacking other Roman Catholics.

Donohue makes righteous indignation and throwing rhetorical bombs into an art form. He is about as subtle as a fist in your face. If you are looking for reasoned and sensible analysis turn on PBS, Donohue seems to snarl. His latest depiction of cultural doom probably elicits a yawn from most religious Americans who are not obsessed with the bogeymen of multiculturalism, secularism, homosexuality and Hollywood hedonism that Donohue rails against with a bullying style.

Everyday in our churches, mosques and synagogues people of faith gather humbly to pray for wisdom, compassion and justice. We give public expression to this faith by comforting the sick, welcoming the strangers among us and seeking peace in a world torn by violence. We lobby Congress to pass health-care reform, fix a broken immigration system and address global climate change as profound moral issues. Even on difficult issues, we reject culture-war showdowns by encouraging pro-choice and pro-life elected officials to find common ground and reduce abortions by increasing support for pregnant women, expanding adoption opportunities and preventing unintended pregnancies.

It's a shame, if unsurprising, that the media regularly turns to Donohue for a "Catholic view" on issues. While Donohue's bluster makes for sensational television, he rarely raises his voice to speak about issues at the heart of Catholic social teaching. While the U.S. Catholic bishops' 2008 election-year statement on political responsibility emphasized a consistent ethic of life tradition that recognizes torture, unjust war, the death penalty, genocide, racism and poverty as "direct assaults on innocent human life," Donohue is uncharacteristically mute on these points. Abortion is not the only "life issue" for Catholics. As Auxiliary Bishop Gabino Zavala of Los Angeles told Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne, Jr. last year: "We are not a one-issue Church...but that's not what always comes out."

We live in an age where the shrillest voices often drown out sober debate and thoughtful insights. Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh watch their ratings soar with every outrageous remark. Bill Donohue gets invited on TV because he bellows and bloviates with the best of them. While some enjoy the antics, most of us are tired of the noise machine. Faith and reason are not enemies, but together can help illuminate our path through the dark forests of fear, ignorance and injustice. Sometimes we just need to turn down the volume and tune out the shouters to find our way.

Monday, June 26, 2006

One of the reasons George W. Bush’s first-term in office was so disastrous was that he came into office by clearly illegitimate means. His victory over Al Gore was Constitutional – and I respect that – but the majority of Americans voted for Gore in 2000 over Bush and all but the most partisan understand that Gore would have won Florida if the Republican-majority on the Supreme Court had allowed the recount to occur. It was Al Gore that Americans wanted sworn in as president in January 2001 and not the governor of Texas.

Like many Americans, I spent the evening of the 2004 election watching the returns on television and wondering how the exit polls, which predicted an overwhelming victory for John Kerry, had gotten it so wrong. By midnight, the official tallies showed a decisive lead for George Bush -- and the next day, lacking enough legal evidence to contest the results, Kerry conceded. Republicans derided anyone who expressed doubts about Bush's victory as nut cases in ''tinfoil hats,'' while the national media, with few exceptions, did little to question the validity of the election. The Washington Post immediately dismissed allegations of fraud as ''conspiracy theories,''(1) and The New York Times declared that ''there is no evidence of vote theft or errors on a large scale.''(2)

But despite the media blackout, indications continued to emerge that something deeply troubling had taken place in 2004. Nearly half of the 6 million American voters living abroad(3) never received their ballots -- or received them too late to vote(4) -- after the Pentagon unaccountably shut down a state-of-the-art Web site used to file overseas registrations.(5) A consulting firm called Sproul & Associates, which was hired by the Republican National Committee to register voters in six battleground states,(6) was discovered shredding Democratic registrations.(7) In New Mexico, which was decided by 5,988 votes,(8) malfunctioning machines mysteriously failed to properly register a presidential vote on more than 20,000 ballots.(9) Nationwide, according to the federal commission charged with implementing election reforms, as many as 1 million ballots were spoiled by faulty voting equipment -- roughly one for every 100 cast.(10)

The reports were especially disturbing in Ohio, the critical battleground state that clinched Bush's victory in the electoral college. Officials there purged tens of thousands of eligible voters from the rolls, neglected to process registration cards generated by Democratic voter drives, shortchanged Democratic precincts when they allocated voting machines and illegally derailed a recount that could have given Kerry the presidency. A precinct in an evangelical church in Miami County recorded an impossibly high turnout of ninety-eight percent, while a polling place in inner-city Cleveland recorded an equally impossible turnout of only seven percent. In Warren County, GOP election officials even invented a nonexistent terrorist threat to bar the media from monitoring the official vote count.(11)

Was the 2004 election stolen? Did John Kerry actually defeat George W. Bush in 2004 just as Al Gore did in 2000? Kennedy makes a good case that is just what happened.

Steven F. Freeman and Joel Bleifuss, writing today in The Boston Globe, are asking for a federal investigation. That would only be appropriate considering the evidence we now have available. All Americans need to know if their votes were stolen in 2004.

In recognizing the Church's role in providing moral leadership, we acknowledge and accept the tension that comes with being in disagreement with the Church in some areas. Yet we believe we can speak to the fundamental issues that unite us as Catholics and lend our voices to changing the political debate -- a debate that often fails to reflect and encompass the depth and complexity of these issues.

As legislators, we are charged with preserving the Constitution, which guarantees religious freedom for all Americans. In doing so, we guarantee our right to live our own lives as Catholics, but also foster an America with a rich diversity of faiths. We believe the separation of church and state allows for our faith to inform our public duties.

A recent public statement by 55 Catholic and Democratic members of the House of Representatives offers an opportunity to address several important points about the responsibilities of Catholics in public life.

We welcome this and other efforts that seek to examine how Catholic legislators bring together their faith and their policy choices. As the Catholic bishops of the United States said in our June 2004 statement, "Catholics in Political Life":

We need to do more to persuade all people that human life is precious and human dignity must be defended. This requires more effective dialogue and engagement with all public officials, especially Catholic public officials. We welcome conversation initiated by political leaders themselves.

Therefore, we welcome the Representatives' recognition that Catholics in public life must act seriously and responsibly on many important moral issues. Our faith has an integral unity that calls Catholics to defend human life and human dignity whenever they are threatened. A priority for the poor, the protection of family life, the pursuit of justice and the promotion of peace are fundamental priorities of the Catholic moral tradition which cannot be ignored or neglected. We encourage and will continue to work with those in both parties who seek to act on these essential principles in defense of the poor and vulnerable.

At the same time, we also need to reaffirm the Catholic Church's constant teaching that abortion is a grave violation of the most fundamental human right - the right to life that is inherent in all human beings, and that grounds every other right we possess. Pope John Paul II's apostolic exhortation on the vocation and mission of the laity, Christifideles Laici, which the Representatives' statement cites, declares:

The inviolability of the person which is a reflection of the absolute inviolability of God fínds its primary and fundamental expression in the inviolability of human life. Above all, the common outcry, which is justly made on behalf of human rights -- for example, the right to health, to home, to work, to family, to culture -- is false and illusory if the right to life, the most basic and fundamental right and the condition for all other personal rights, is not defended with maximum determination.... The human being is entitled to such rights, in every phase of development, from conception until natural death; and in every condition, whether healthy or sick, whole or handicapped, rich or poor (# 38).

While it is always necessary to work to reduce the number of abortions by providing alternatives and help to vulnerable parents and children, Catholic teaching calls all Catholics to work actively to restrain, restrict and bring to an end the destruction of unborn human life.

The hypocrisy is that the bishops hold Republicans and Democrats to different standards.

The bishops are free to try and influence public policy - I support that freedom 100%. But they are not free to engage in partisan political activity. The law forbids it.

As Americans, we should appreciate that the Roman Catholics House Democrats support the Constitution over papal authority.

We believe all persons are created in the image of a loving God, who not only creates but also embodies, embraces and celebrates diversity. As disciples of Jesus, we are called to restore justice wherever God's creation is broken or divided.

We acknowledge that gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered persons have long been excluded, rejected and dishonored by the Church. This practice, often implicitly condoned by silence, continues today. While persons of minority sexual orientations have historically been a part of faith communities, many, out of fear or rejection, have been unable to live openly the fullness of their lives. Others have left or never joined a church.

We also recognize that other marginalized people have been excluded. When any person's opportunity for spiritual growth and worship is limited by injustice, our own growth is restricted and our worship diminished. We celebrate that this congregation has been a welcoming community of faith and now wish to make our welcome explicit for all. Therefore:

We invite people of every race, nationality, age, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status, ability, financial means, ethnic and spiritual background into the full life and ministry of this congregation.

As one expression of this invitation we declare First Congregational United Church of Christ, Asheville, NC to be an "Open and Affirming" congregation of the United Church of Christ. With God's help, we will challenge injustice based on sexual orientation. We promise to support and honor all loving and mutual relationships. With a spirit of thankfulness for all God's gifts we humbly and prayerfully enter into this covenant with one another.

Approved by congregational vote on January 27, 2002.

Christianity is a faith founded on God’s love for creation – all creation. We are called “do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with our God. (Micah 6:8)." Asheville, NC is fortunate to have several churches that reject exclusion and embrace diversity.

The pastor of East Waynesville Baptist Church, Chan Chandler, has resigned. Chandler was accused last week of terminating the membership of nine church members because they voted for John Kerry. 40 other members resigned in protest. The Asheville Citizens-Times reports that Chandler promised church members he would continue speaking out against abortion before announcing his resignation. His actions obviously deeply harmed his congregation. It would be appropriate for the IRS and North Carolina officials to investigate how church funds were managed during his tenure. It certainly appears he confused ministry with promoting the reelection of George W. Bush. If he used his position to advocate for Bush’s campaign the church should loose their non-profit status.

Friday, May 06, 2005

If so, you'd better hope East Waynesville Baptist Church in western North Carolina isn’t your home congregation. The pastor there just kicked out everyone who voted for the democratic candidate. WLOS TV reports:

East Waynesville Baptist asked nine members to leave. Now 40 more have left the church in protest. Former members say Pastor Chan Chandler gave them the ultimatum, saying if they didn't support George Bush, they should resign or repent. The minister declined an interview with News 13. But he did say "the actions were not politically motivated." There are questions about whether the bi-laws were followed when the members were thrown out.

You have to wonder when the “Christian choice” for president became someone who launches unjustified wars, cuts health care benefits for the elderly to pay for tax cuts for the rich, and pushes policies that harm the environment – God’s own creation. That isn’t the God I know. God is not a Republican – or a Democrat.

The IRS should yank this church's 501 (c) 3 non-profit status as quick as possible. Pastors have no business acting as the enforcer for a political party.

Friday, February 04, 2005

A Colorado group called Citizens Project is asking for an investigation to determine whether or not Focus on The Family used their resources to promote George W. Bush's 2004 campaign. Non-profits are forbidden by law from endorsing candidates. Click here for the story.

Saturday, December 04, 2004

A recount election has determined that Alabama’s Amendment 2 has failed. The amendment would have removed racist language from the state constitution that is unenforceable because of federal laws. The Birmingham News reports:

The proposed amendment would have removed language from the state constitution that disclaimed a right to public education and required racially segregated public schools. Critics said the measure could have opened the door to increased education taxes. Statewide, the measure failed by 1,850 votes, or .13 percent of 1.38 million votes cast. A 2003 state law forces a recount for any losing margin less than .5 percent.

Monday, November 29, 2004

Meet the Press took on the topic of religious faith and political values this past Sunday. The Rev. Jim Wallis, editor of Sojourners Magazine, was a guest along with Jerry Falwell, Richard Land, and Al Sharpton. Those of us who attend church on Sundays don’t often get the watch the Sunday news programs, but I did read the transcript of this one. It was typical commercial television. Host Tim Russert and his producers picked religious spokespeople known more for their verbose speaking skills than their theological insights. Wallis was the only participant who offered more substance than soundbites. Here is one example of a pretty typical exchange involving Wallis:

MR. RUSSERT: The Sojourners newspaper took out an ad--the Sojourners magazine took a newspaper ad out, Reverend Wallis, in which this was the headline. "God Is Not a Republican or a Democrat. ...leaders of the Religious Right mistakenly claim that Mod has taken a side in this election and that Christians should only vote for George W. Bush. We believe claims of divine appointment for the President, uncritical affirmation of his policies, and assertions that all Christians must vote for his re- election constitute bad theology and dangerous religion."

Explain.

REV. JIM WALLIS: Well, Christians voted both ways in this election. God is not a Republican or a Democrat. That should be obvious. The values question is critical. The question is how narrowly or how broadly we define values. So we say that poverty is a religious and moral value. So is the environment. So is the war in Iraq. These are moral value that require a lot of discussion. I welcome the moral-values conversation. I really do. It's the soul of our politics, the compass of our public life. But how narrowly or how broadly we define the values is the question.

In this election, there were competing values, so a lot of Christians voted both ways because we wanted to vote all of our values, not just one or two. I think the Democrats are often uncomfortable talking about faith values, when it's even about their agenda. The Republicans want to narrow, though, or restrict values to one or two issues--important ones, but one or two. I think the Democrats have to recover their heart and soul; Republicans need a broader and deeper agenda about values.

Wallis is one of those rare religious activists who have been known to be critical of both Republicans and Democrats. He is a pro-life advocate who voted for John Kerry in the last election. He also lead protests against Bill Clinton’s welfare policies in the 1990s and was critical of the former president’s personal indiscretions. Falwell’s comments sounded like old and tired rhetoric from a Republican Party political operative.

DR. FALWELL: Jim, let me ask you a question. Did you vote for John Kerry?

REV. WALLIS: I did vote for John Kerry.

DR. FALWELL: Now, he is pro-choice. How can you as an ordained minister--you are an ordained minister, right?

REV. WALLIS: Jerry--Jerry...

DR. FALWELL: How could you vote for some--I wouldn't vote for my mother if she were pro-choice.

REV. WALLIS: Yeah. You endorsing George Bush. That's fine. But you also called--you ordained him. You said all Christians could only vote for him. That's ridiculous. There are Christians who voted for deep reasons of faith for both candidates.

One of the problems with contemporary religious dialog is that it gets reduced to these brief exchanges in the national media. Those on the religious right are masters of this type of forum. Progressive religious leaders have shied away from both the media and the kind of grassroots organizing done so effectively by Falwell and company. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: those of us who are religious progressives need to be more engaged with issues of public concern. We need to creatively force the media into hearing our side of the debate. Our churches and leaders need to be better organized to promote an inclusive and progressive theological message.

That is not to say that we should imitate the Religious Right. They preach division and that is a perversion of the Christian faith. Our model for organizing should be Jesus who always spoke of an open table where all were invited to partake in the justice of God’s Kingdom. Wallis did a sound job of articulating that vision this Sunday.

Monday, November 15, 2004

During the Kerry campaign I encountered a Roman Catholic seminarian protesting the senator's pro-choice position. That same seminarian posted a comment today on my site asking me to justify my position on abortion (which he termed murder) as a Christian. I responded by rejecting the premise of his question. Abortion is not murder and I feel no obligation to justify my Christianity to this seminarian or anyone else based on one single issue. My guess is that he is a faithful Christian and I demand the same respect regardless of any difference we might have on the issue of abortion.

The official Roman Catholic position on abortion is also a faithful attempt to discern God's will on issues of life. Many churches, however, have come to a different conclusion than the Roman Catholic church that are just as faithful. Plenty of Christians are pro-choice.

Click here to read the official pro-choice statements from denominations like the United Church of Christ, United Methodist Church, Episcopal Church, Presbyterian Church USA, American Baptist Church, and others.

Dana Christensen is the seminarian who wrote me. He has a blog that he used to promote George W. Bush's campaign. Visit it and you'll quickly see a very different theology than the one promoted here. That's just fine. I suspect there are times we can learn from each other if we begin from a place of respect.

No one - not even pro-choice advocates like myself - want abortions to occur. They should be safe, legal and rare. That makes Christensen's support of President Bush ironic. It turns out that abortions have actually increased under Bush's leadership. If you want less abortions we need to return to the social policies of the Clinton / Gore years.

Keep in mind that not all Catholics voted just on the issue of abortion. The Catholic vote was nearly split. Many Catholic leaders also spoke out against those who demanded that Catholics vote on just this one issue. Those good folks deserve our respect and thanks. The majority of religious people in America are pro-choice. Don't be fooled by rhetoric that tells you otherwise.

Friday, November 12, 2004

If Democrats are ever going to win national elections they obviously need to do a better job of reaching out to religious voters. Most voters are, of course, religious. But there are some voters who clearly vote for candidates based on religious beliefs. With a good message many of those voters would stand with progressive candidates. The Kerry campaign made a start at working with religious voters when they hired an outreach coordinator. Unfortunately, they never made as serious an effort as was called for. This week PBS' Religion & Ethics Newsweekly interviews Mike McCurry and Mara Vanderslice about what the Kerry campaign did right and what needs to be done better the next time around. Click here to view or read the story.

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, and Unitarian Universalist leaders agree with the growing consensus that the presidential election was decided by issues such as war, terrorism and jobs, not unspecified “moral values.” Spurred in part by dislike of the divisive election, the religious progressive movement is being renewed.

“The nation learned an important lesson this year,” said Reverend Carlton W. Veazey, President of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. “Our enemies are intolerance, extremism, and ignorance.”

Religious leaders affiliated with the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice gave a news briefing at the National Press Club in Washington DC. They concurred that questionable interpretations of exit poll results are misleading the nation. No views or values changed because of the election. On one of the supposed hot-button issues, abortion, the percent of Americans in both parties who support reproductive choice in some or most cases remained steady.

“For Catholics, polling has consistently shown that in the majority they want abortion to remain legal, gay Americans to have civil rights, and traditional liberal support for the poor and unemployed to be honored,” Catholics for a Free Choice President Frances Kissling said. “While there is much work progressive people of faith need to do to speak more compellingly to the general public, a solid foundation of social justice will work to mobilize mainstream Catholics."

Political and social conservatives may have turned out in record numbers on Election Day but “it appears their obsession with divisive social issues is not shared by very many Americans,” said Reverend Barry Lynn, Executive Director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. But “the culture war is real, and it’s about to go nuclear,” he said. “This is not a war that the American people want, but it’s one that the Religious Right seems determined to fight.”

An unprecedented number of religious institutions were involved in voter education and registration, including the ecumenical initiative termed Faithful Democracy. Reverend Meg Riley, director of the Unitarian Universalist Advocacy and Witness Program, said that her denomination registered approximately 50,000 voters and built new relationships with other progressive organizations. She likened the 2004 election cycle to the beginning of a period of growth toward greater justice.

The moral issues that concerned most religious Americans were poverty, war, families and children, healthcare, hunger, pollution, and human rights. “We face not a clash between cultures or between red and blue states but a clash between justice and greed,” said Jim Winkler, General Secretary of the General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church, President George W. Bush’s denomination.

Throughout the nation, progressive people of faith and religions are rallying to positive actions. In California, said Rabbi Steven B. Jacobs of Temple Kol Tikvah in Woodland Hills, the $3 billion stem cell research initiative is a clear indication that Americans do not want ideology to limit their healthcare.

Nationally, said Episcopal Priest Reverend Dr. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale, “the mainstream religious community is awake and we will not be silent. But we’re not just going to identify the lies, distortions, and perversions of the Right. We’ll also be presenting a vision of what America has been when at its best and can be again.”

Reproductive choice is central to that vision and "consistent with democratic values,” concluded Reverend Lloyd H. Steffen of Lehigh University. He challenged progressive religious leaders and scholars to help the nation understand and reject "the dangerous movement to suppress freedom” being waged by those who oppose fundamental values such as reproductive choice.

Friday, November 05, 2004

Like everyone else I’ve been trying to make sense out of the election results.What do the numbers mean?Why did Kerry loose?Do secular Democrats really want to keep us Christians in the closet?I’ve received hundreds and hundreds of e-mails announcing my near imminent departure for hell because of my pro-choice and pro-gay views.Am I really going to hell?If I get to pick someone to tag along can I pick George W. Bush?Does he already know the way?

When left with questions like these at times like this it is best to turn to religious bloggers.Secular bloggers don’t count because many of you only want my voice at the table if I leave my Bible at home and promise never to mention Jesus unless used as a term expressing frustration.“Jesus!I lost my pen.” So I'm not playing with my secular friends today.

So what do the progressive faith blogs have to say.

Karl Rove did it. He was able to coble together a slight majority in this country by appeals to the base and in this particular election one of the most important components of that base was the evangelical protestant community. I don't have any criticism of Kerry and the moblization of the left in this country was the most impressive I've ever seen. That's probably why I had some level of optimism going into this election. But the problem is that evangelical protestants are so large a voting block that surmounting it in a national election is going to be an a daunting task for democrats in many states.

I'm making an effort to look towards the future, and try to see where we go from here. The only conclusion I've come to so far is that progressives are failing to communicate their message. Once we've learned how to do this more effectively, we are going to have to engage those with whom we disagree in conversation. Personally, I'm not there yet. I can't talk to Republicans or Roman Catholics right now. I won't be going to ministerial association meetings, which are dominated by evangelicals, for awhile. Not only does their glee in electing a "good, God-fearing man" make me sick, most likely I'd give them a piece of my mind, and that is not the kind of conversation that's going to help right now.

I do think he would have been a very good president. For all the slander he had to confront, he articulated a plan, fought the good fight, and organized the base. That he has chosen not to challenge Bush demonstrates class. He'll have some money in the bank, and let the country focus on issues. And now that Bush has won legitimately perhaps the liberal vitriol will cool down a bit.

Progressives can now focus on framing the message: of sharing prosperity, building up strong communities, caring for the health and education of children, protecting the environment, and strengthening our borders. There will be plenty of times challenge the administration in its more egregious abuses of the political process.

Little Uptown never wakes or cries in the night. But at five this morning she was wailing and sobbing. "She knows," Mrs. Uptown said.

So we took her from her crib, and, against house rules, brought her to our bed, and hugged her, and soothed her, until she slept.

We surely weren't the only parents clutching their kids. A mother writes on a blogger's message board: "Last night I was so upset I crawled into bed with my little boy so I could sniff his sweet head and feel as if there were some good, true things in the world."

You would think that something more than an election was lost, wouldn't you?

There's a lot to say on a day like this. Everyone on the losing side has an opinion, criticism or psychic wound to share--and I do too.

But let's not rush through the grief too quickly. Sick animals, Thich Nhat Hanh reminds us, curl up in the woods and go to sleep, so their bodies can heal without stress. Let's be just as smart as a muskat. Let's do the decent thing for our mental and physical health--scream and wail, rend our garments, gulp vegetable soup and bourbon, and take to our beds.

Why such grief? Because dreams died hard yesterday. Some had names: the youth vote (kids stayed home), the women's vote (mothers must really believe their daughters will never need abortions), the black vote (huge, but sorry--you're just a minority), the lives of our soldiers (no price is too high to pay for Halliburton profits). Some were more abstract: the sanctity of the Constitution, leadership in science and medicine, environmental protection, health care for the poor, fact-based education, rights of gay partners, and more.

Those who are weeping today--and if I know ten, then there have to be tens of thousands--are people with hearts and imaginations big enough to weep for our fellow citizens, our country and our planet.

Sound overwrought? I think not. Because this was more than an election.

Christians know a lot about losing. We know that to get to Easter we first have to confront the horror of Good Friday.Maybe Tuesday was another Good Friday.Maybe something wonderful is about to be reborn from the wreckage of Election Day.God did not abandon those who fought for justice this week.The people and their Pharaoh abandoned God.There will be natural consequences for that betrayal.Pray for mercy and justice. Pray that God guides us safely out of this darkness and into a place where we can once again partner with God to build a more just world. That's just what I'm thinking. What about you?

Thursday, November 04, 2004

This letter was sent on Wednesday before it was determined that President Bush had won the election.

Dear sisters and brothers in Christ,

Grace to you and peace in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. I am writing to you, the member churches of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in the United States of America, on behalf of your extended church family around the world.

We ask God's grace and peace for you and for the person who will finally be chosen as leader of your country. We send this letter to encourage and support you in these important times, and to renew our fellowship in the unity of the Holy Spirit and in the bonds of peace.

The choice of the US president is of great concern not only to the people of the USA but also to people across the world. Though we are confident that God’s Holy Spirit, the advocate and comforter, is with us, many people in the world today confess to feeling afraid for the future. People feel fear of terrorism, fear of old struggles newly re-branded as terrorism, and fear of fear itself in the service of great power.

Yet this letter is not about fear. It commends God’s all-embracing grace and peace to you, in faith and with goodwill.

Know that we stand with you, as sisters and brothers, in the hope that only God can give. That hope reminds us that fear is no match for the recognition of God’s presence in our lives which sustains our faith. We can look with confidence to the days ahead because there is far more that unites us as people of faith than separates us as citizens of a divided world. We are all members of Christ’s body. Nothing - no terror, no fear, no lie - can ever separate us.

We do not ask whose side God was on in this election. Rather, like Abraham Lincoln when he confronted a divisive war, we seek to be found on God's side. We pray that all people of faith with the help of God's Spirit may discern what is good for the world.

Many people have watched the US closely in recent months, with great interest in how churches shape a powerful nation’s stance toward the world. The harsh claims that make most of the headlines, that invoke the judgement of a partisan god, have provoked deep concern around the world.

How different it is, however, when churches offer a moral and spiritual compass for their community, their nation and the world. They are a voice for the good of all, and are seen as such. They love the whole world; they pray for God to bless the lands of others. People far and near - especially our cousins of other faiths - await such signs from all of us.

As fellow citizens of the world, we wish you peace. Half a century ago, with US leadership, an international community convinced of the need for change, gave birth to the United Nations, to the UN Charter, to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to the Geneva Convention, and much more. The shared purpose then was to secure peace and promote human security. At that time, churches and their members added greatly to the process and did not go unheard. They served as a moral conscience for their time.

Today, too, people all over the world recognize what the US can offer. By being a country open to newcomers of different cultures and creeds. By trusting the rule of law. By supporting democracy and the freedom of speech. By being ready to take action when the international community, through the United Nations, asks for US participation and leadership. By being generous to those in need. By addressing the root causes of poverty and social injustice, within the US as well as globally. As churches, we are asked to be involved and contribute to such political directions.

The WCC member churches in the US have been active in forming the mind of the ecumenical movement throughout its history. As a worldwide family of more than 340 churches, we share with each other and with the wider world the privilege of living for a purpose deeper than economic success and working for goals greater than national security.

On this third day of November, 2004, we pray that we may answer the challenges before us in faith and in love, together.

With the 2004 Presidential Election decided, National Council of Churches General Secretary Robert W. Edgar offered the following statement: "This election confirmed that we are a divided nation, not only politically but in terms of our interpretations of God's will. We in the church must redouble our efforts to call all people of faith to affirm the values of both public morality and private piety. Regardless of who leads our country, the agenda of the church must always respond faithfully to the Bible's timeless mandate to minister to the poor, the marginalized and the outcast; and to be seekers and makers of peace. In this quest for the common good, we will contribute to the healing of the nation, and of the family of nations. The American political system is strong and vibrant, persisting through waves of changing circumstances, because of the vigilance of patriots and the ever-renewing blessings of Constitutional government. We pledge to pray for President Bush and his Administration, and offer our best efforts to unite the nation in the cause of justice and peace."

Wednesday, November 03, 2004

Want to blame someone for John Kerry’s defeat? Writer John MacArthur thinks religion is to blame. In an article called “Religion's Kidnapping of the Campaign” published by The Providence Journal he argues that secularism is under assault by fanatical Christians who are trying to turn America into a theocracy.

MacArthur asserts that the founding principle of separation of church and state argues that politicians should be devoid of personal religious expression. His hero in this battle is, of course, Thomas Jefferson. But MacArthur shows an incredible lack of historical perspective. Jefferson argued – rightly – against the establishment of a state religion but the nation’s third president was himself a religious man. Garry Wills writes in his 1989 book Under God:

Jefferson’s words are put to many uses in debate over the relationship of the church to state in America. We know more about his personal views on religion than we know about any other person’s at the origin of our state. But our knowledge is drawn from sources denied to his contemporaries, who speculated widely about his “atheism” or made unfounded charges about his hostility to organized religion of all kinds. Echoes of those charges haunted his reputation, even to this day.

George W. Bush, from my standpoint, misused religion during this campaign (and during his first term) by arguing for a theology of empire in which America’s military power is an instrument of God’s will. MacArthur is incensed that John Kerry didn’t completely disassociate himself from faith in the campaign.

…John Kerry, the quasi-secular Catholic, makes sure he's photographed with the proper forehead smudge on Ash Wednesday. Threatened by Catholic priests furious with his defense of abortion rights, he tries to outdo Bush in his declarations of religious faith.

No surprise that in the final presidential "debate," Bush again stated with jaw-dropping arrogance that "God wants everybody to be free" and "that's been part of my foreign policy. In Afghanistan, I believe that the freedom there is a gift from the Almighty."

Kerry, instead of simply affirming Article VI and the First Amendment, upped the ante: "Everything is a gift from the Almighty"

More recently, in a speech in Florida, the Democratic candidate born into the citadel of Puritanism employed the word "faith" 11 times, while genuflecting to the enemies of liberty: those "great preachers and educators who taught the founders of our nation to believe that we could create a great and shining City on a Hill here in America."

This is a religious qualification for public servants desired by Puritans (ancient and modern) and banned by the Constitution -- yet now, in effect, established. The vote today may well turn on the perception of each candidate's religious faith.

Kerry’s only mistake in talking about his religious faith was not doing it soon enough (see related post). Faith in God and in a progressive form of Catholicism clearly help guide Kerry’s decision making process. Voters want to know what makes a candidate tick. When you attempt to hide who you are at the core people can feel that and wonder where your values develop. No one had to ever guess at Bush’s core (flawed as it is). He would have felt more “real” to voters if he had been more open about who he was.

Discussing your faith is a far cry from embracing theocracy.

America’s labor movement, women’s suffrage movement, and civil rights movement all had strong support from religious leaders in America. Our government doesn’t need a state religion but our people have benefited from the actions of those who act out of their faith in God.

This election saw more efforts by progressive Christians to engage in the political process than at anytime in over a generation. Not all Christians are Bush Christians. It was good for America that hundreds of thousands of progressive Christians organized in churches and ecumenical groups to lift up issues of poverty, war & peace, and racial justice. My only wish is that we had been better organized. The Kerry campaign missed several opportunities to partner with the faith community in a meaningful way. Jim Wallis wrote today that:

Religion was a big factor in this election, and "moral values" were named as a key issue for voters in the exit polls. On the Republican side, George W. Bush talked comfortably and frequently about his personal faith and ran on what his conservative religious base called the "moral issues." On the Democratic side, Senator John Kerry invoked the New Testament story of the Good Samaritan, talked about the importance of loving our neighbors, and said that faith without works is dead - but only began talking that way at the very end of his campaign….

It is now key to remember that our vision - a progressive and prophetic vision of faith and politics - was not running in this election. John Kerry was, and he lost. Kerry did not strongly champion the poor as a religious issue and "moral value," or make the war in Iraq a clearly religious matter. In his debates with George Bush, Kerry should have challenged the war in Iraq as an unjust war, as many religious leaders did - including Evangelicals and Catholics. And John Kerry certainly did not advocate a consistent ethic of human life as we do - opposing all the ways that life is threatened in our violent world.

We didn't lose the election, John Kerry did, and the ways in which both his vision and the Democratic Party's are morally and politically incomplete should continue to be taken up by progressive people of faith.

MacArthur and the other secular liberals out there ought to welcome those of us who are progressive Christians to the table. We need to continue building bridges to progressive groups that are not expressly religious. Unfortunately, it was often the case that secular Democrats wanted nothing to do with religion in this campaign. MacArthur even mocked Kerry's faith in his article. Mocking religious people and excluding them from the progressive coalition was one of several mistakes that helped contribute to Kerry's defeat. Maybe we'll all do a better job in four years.

It took all night but we now know that Russ Carnahan has been elected to take Richard Gephardt’s seat in the United States House of Representatives. Liz volunteered on his campaign before the twins were born and even appeared in some of his advertising. Carnahan was the Planned Parenthood-backed candidate in the race. Many democrats in Missouri are pro-life Roman Catholics. Carnahan, currently a state representative, is a United Methodist. He is the son of the late Governor Mel Carnahan and former US Senator Jean Carnahan. Robin Carnahan, his sister, was elected Missouri’s Secretary of State last night.

Tuesday, November 02, 2004

Nothing on the national front looks good. It would take some kind of miracle for John Kerry to win now (and though I believe in miracles I don’t believe one of this sort will occur). That means that George W. Bush will be elected (for the first time) to serve as President of the United States. We should all pray for his success and wish him well during the next four years. We also have the right and the obligation as citizens to challenge him whenever he pursues the same kind of disastrous policies that have been his hallmark. Govern from the middle, Mr. President, and some important work can get done. Govern from the extreme right and you will see a nation even more divided than this Election Day. John Kerry deserves our thanks for fighting hard in an honorable way. It would be a safe bet to say that Senator Kerry is even more upset over these results than me. But just barely.

Oregonians voted in favor of Measure 36 on Tuesday night. The measure outlaws gay marriage. Gay marriage was pushed to the forefront of the political agenda by Basic Rights Oregon (BRO) and their call for the legalization of gay marriage in Multnomah County. It now appears that BRO and the Multnomah County Commissioners took a chance that in the end failed in a miserable way and set-back the cause of civil rights for gays and lesbians. I applauded their decision then and now see what an ill-thought out plan it was. Some people should loose their jobs over this and others might consider not running for public office again. This was a colossal failure and those involved should be held accountable. The ballot measure was supported by conservative evangelical Christians and opposed by religious bodies like the Central Pacific Conference of the United Church of Christ.

Good news from the Rose City. Tom Potter will be the next mayor of Portland, Oregon after beating a well financed opponent. Potter, the former police chief, had the backing of Portland’s progressive community. His campaign stressed themes of economic development, affordable housing, and safety. I’ve known the mayor-elect since his days as the police chief and have been proud to be an early supporter of his campaign. On the City Council he’ll have a strong ally in Erik Sten, a friend of mine since our time working with former Portland City Commissioner Gretchen Kafoury. City Hall will be different with the Potter-Sten team in place. You’ll see a more open government attuned to the needs of neighborhoods. You’ll see a City Hall more concerned with issues of homelessness and poverty. Best of all: you’ll see a mayor worthy of the Rose City.

Update: You can now contact Mayor Tom Potter via his official web site.

Internet gossip columnist Matt Drudge posted what he said were early exit poll results from 14 states at about 2:45 p.m. Washington time showing Kerry held a lead over Bush in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Although Drudge took the numbers off his Web site about 20 minutes later, other Internet sites, including Slate.com and Wonkette.com, have similar figures.

Long lines are reported at polling places across America. Our 45 minute wait at the Webster Groves Library in Missouri confirms that. Liz and I brought Katherine and Frances along for their very first presidential election. They both recommended a Kerry vote and we bowed to their wishes. Now we wait.

I should mention they still use punch card ballots here. There are signs on each voting booth warning about the dangers of hanging chad. Liz is 50% confident she didn’t vote for Pat Buchanan. My ballot was chad-free. I double checked.

Since we live in a mostly white upper-class neighborhood there were no Republicans around trying to challenge our vote. Voter intimidation of that sort is reserved for African-American and low-income neighborhoods. It will be an extra sweet night if Ohio goes for Kerry.

Monday, November 01, 2004

The British Section of Pax Christi has sent journalist Paul Donovan to be an observer at the US election process in Florida, a State at the centre of disputes in the 2000 elections.

A delegation of international observers arrived in the US on Sunday to be trained as monitors and then placed on site in four Florida counties: Miami-Dade, Broward, West Palm Beach and Duval, to help to ensure free and fair elections.

It follows concerns, expressed by former President Jimmy Carter and others, about the electoral process there.

Pax Christi is an international Christian peacemaking movement. It works within the Church and wider community to bring about a culture of peace by being a 'prophetic witness' to peace and standing against violence. It also promotes the option of nonviolence as means of resolving conflict and providins peace education materials and programmes.

The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism issued a statement today condemning advertising sent to New Jersey voters. A postcard mailed out by the GOP falsely implies that at two leading Jewish figures in the United States have endorsed George W. Bush. The New York Times reports:

TRENTON, Oct. 29 - The leaders of two national Jewish organizations have demanded that the New Jersey Republican State Committee stop using their names in campaign fliers that urge Jewish voters to cast their ballots for President Bush.

The directors of both the Anti-Defamation League and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism said on Friday that they were surprised and disappointed that the Republican state committee had used their names and quotations on a mailer sent out to 60,000 Jewish households this week.

The pamphlet features a photo of President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon standing shoulder to shoulder on the front, and on the back it lists quotations from four well-known Jewish figures who praise the president's commitment to Israel and the war on terror.

But two of those quoted, Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, and Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, complained Friday that neither they nor their organizations had endorsed any candidate, and they said it was inappropriate for Republicans to use their names and words on a campaign pamphlet a few days before a hotly contested election.

Mr. Foxman said that although the quotation attributed to him was accurate, it was misleading for Republicans to list it beneath the words of former Mayor Edward I. Koch of New York City, who has been a visible supporter of Mr. Bush.

The other quotation on the flier was attributed to Howard A. Kohr, executive director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. A spokesperson for the group did not return phone calls seeking comment late Friday.

Mr. Foxman said: "The way my name, and my quotation, are being used is inaccurate, because it makes it look like I and the A.D.L. are supporting the re-election, which is simply not true. As soon as I learned of it, I called and asked them to stop."

Rabbi Saperstein said he was outraged that his words had been used in a partisan campaign mailer.

"It is utterly factually incorrect for them to mislead people into thinking I endorse any candidate in this race," he said. "It is woefully inappropriate, and I want them to cease and desist immediately."

Remember that the Republican National Committee sent out a flyer warning voters in some states that democrats secretly planned to ban the Bible. Sending out a postcard pretending to have support from religious leaders is just the kind of misleading effort the Bush campaign has run from day one. They are ending their campaign just the way they started it. Hopefully, voters will pay them back at the polls tomorrow.

MIAMI, FL - Nineteen bishops issued a public statement this week criticizing the Bush administration’s environmental policies and calling upon Christians to “demonstrate our love of God and neighbor by choosing leaders who will tend God’s creation like a garden, for the poor and the humble, our children, and the sanctity of life.” The distinguished list of signatories includes Episcopal, Lutheran and Methodist bishops from 14 states, including three bishops from Florida.

"We who are Christians believe that the living God created out of nothing the whole universe and this good earth,” said Bishop Tim Whitaker, Florida Area Resident Bishop, United Methodist Church. “We have been made by God to be a part of the creation and to care for the creation. Caring for the creation is more than a feeling; it is a commitment to making serious choices about complex matters. The way we care for the creation is one of the most important aspects of our life of faith in the God who is revealed in Jesus Christ our Sovereign and Savior."

The bishops list a number of actions by the Bush administration that have negatively impacted human health, including allowing increased discharges from factories and sewage plants, allowing mine waste to be dumped into rivers and allowing nuclear waste to be stored in areas deemed unsafe by the Department of Energy. Special attention is given to the issue of mercury poisoning. The statement cites a report by scientists of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), estimating that one out of six U.S. women of childbearing age has unsafe levels of mercury in her blood, and that as many as 630,000 newborn children every year are at risk of having brain damage, mental retardation, blindness, seizures, and speech impediments. The bishops cite EPA officials who state that new Administration rules will likely "eviscerate" the EPA’s program to control air pollution altogether.

Volunteers from Defending Creation, a faith-based organization that educates about human suffering arising from abuse of creation, circulated the statement among the bishops. To learn more about Defending Creation and to view a full copy of the bishops’ statement, visit: www.interdependence.us

Sunday, October 31, 2004

Most people know Bill Moyers as the public television broadcaster. A few older folks will remember his Texas roots and staff work for LBJ. Fewer remember that Moyers was a Baptist preacher before he became a special assistant to the president and icon of television integrity. But the man can still preach and in this past year his voice has soared to greater heights than in any other point in his public life. Earlier this month he spoke at Riverside Church.

...let me tell you about a revelation I had here (Riverside Church) just a few weeks ago. We came early for the service and were waiting quietly for the great organ to commence. On an impulse I reached for the Bible in the pew in front of me. It fell open to the Gospel of Matthew where the life of Jesus unfolds chapter by chapter. Glancing at the headings I was reminded of the central events of that brief but intense life and of the great themes of his ministry: There was Jesus being baptized; Jesus tempted in the Wilderness; Jesus delivering the Sermon on the Mount; speaking in parables; healing the leper, the blind, the cripple; feeding the hungry; choosing his disciples; turning his face to Jerusalem to be greeted by a cheering multitude.

And then – in the 2lst chapter – a change. Something I had missed in my many early readings of this story, even in my seminary studies. Jesus becomes angry. We are told that he “went into the temple and drove out all who were buying and selling in the temple precincts; he upset the tables of the money-changers…and said to them, ‘Scripture says-- My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers.’”

Jesus – angry!

I sat there, thinking about this change in the narrative’s tone, in the manner of the man himself: Jesus the healer; Jesus the teacher; Jesus the preacher of forgiveness and love – angry.

I realized: There is a place for anger in this world. It is important to be reminded that some things are worth getting angry about.

Here’s one: On March 10 of this year, on page B8, with a headline that stretched across all six columns, the New York Times reported that tuition in the city’s elite private schools would hit $26,000 for the coming school year – for kindergarten as well as high school. On the same page, under a two-column headline, Michael Winerup wrote about a school in nearby Mount Vernon, the first stop out of the Bronx, with a student body that is 97 percent black. It is the poorest school in the town: nine out of ten children qualify for free lunches; one out of ten lives in a homeless shelter. During Black History month this past February, a sixth grader wanted to write a report on Langston Hughes. There were no books on Langston Hughes in the library – no books about the great poet, nor any of his poems. There is only one book in the library on Frederick Douglass. None on Rosa Parks, Josephine Baker, Leontyne Price, or other giants like them in the modern era. In fact, except for a few Newberry Award books the librarian bought with her own money, the library is mostly old books – largely from the l950s and 60s when the school was all white. A 1960 child’s primer on work begins with a youngster learning how to be a telegraph delivery boy. All the jobs in the book – the dry cleaner, the deliveryman, the cleaning lady – are white. There’s a 1967 book about telephones which says: “when you phone you usually dial the number. But on some new phones you can push buttons.” The newest encyclopedia dates from l991, with two volumes – “b” and “r” – missing. There is no card catalog in the library – no index cards or computer.

Something to get mad about.

Here’s something else: Caroline Payne’s face and gums are distorted because her Medicaid-financed dentures don’t fit. Because they don’t fit, she is continuously turned down for jobs on account of her appearance. Caroline Payne is one of the people in David Shipler’s new book, The Working Poor: Invisible in America. She was born poor, although she once owned her own home and earned a two-year college degree, Caroline Payne has bounced from one poverty-wage job to another all her life, equipped with the will to move up, but not the resources to deal with unexpected and overlapping problems like a mentally handicapped daughter, a broken marriage, a sudden layoff crisis that forced her to sell her few assets, pull up roots and move on. “In the house of the poor,” Shipler writes….” the walls are thin and fragile and troubles seep into one another.”

Here’s something else to get mad about. Some weeks ago, the House of Representatives, the body of Congress owned and operated by the corporate, political, and religious right, approved new tax credits for children. Not for poor children, mind you. But for families earning as much as $309,000 a year—families that already enjoy significant benefits from earlier tax cuts. The editorial page of the Washington Post called this “bad social policy, bad tax policy, and bad fiscal policy. You’d think they’d be embarrassed,” said the Post, “but they’re not.”

And this, too, is something to get mad about: nothing seems to embarrass the political class in Washington today. Not the fact that more children are growing up in poverty in America than in any other industrial nation; not the fact that millions of workers are actually making less money today in real dollars than they did twenty years ago; not the fact that working people are putting in longer and longer hours and still falling behind; not the fact that while we have the most advanced medical care in the world, nearly 44 million Americans – eight out of ten of them in working families—are uninsured and cannot get the basic care they need.

Astonishing as it seems, no one in official Washington seems embarrassed by the fact that the gap between rich and poor is greater than it’s been in 50 years – the worst inequality among all western nations. Or that we are experiencing a shift in poverty. For years we were told that those people down there at the bottom who were single, jobless mothers. For years they were told work, education, and marriage is how they move up the economic ladder. But now poverty is showing up where we didn’t expect it - among families that include two parents, a worker, and a head of the household with more than a high school education. These are the newly poor. Our political, financial and business elites expect them to climb out of poverty on an escalator moving downward.....

.....That’s why Riverside Church finds itself called to a new mission. Your Mobilization 2004 is the vanguard of a new movement. For this hour and this work have you come into the kingdom. Over the past few years, as the poor got poorer, the health care crisis worsened, wealth and media became more and more concentrated, and our political system was bought out from under us, prophetic faith lost its voice. The religious right drowned everyone else out.

And they hijacked Jesus. The very Jesus who stood in Nazareth and proclaimed, “The Lord has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor.” The very Jesus who told 5000 hungry people that all of you will be fed, not just some of you. The very Jesus who challenged the religious orthodoxy of the day by feeding the hungry on the Sabbath, who offered kindness to the prostitute and hospitality to the outcast, who said the kingdom of heaven belongs to little children, raised the status of women, and treated even the tax collector like a child of God. The very Jesus who drove the money changers from the temple. This Jesus has been hijacked and turned from a champion of the disposed into a guardian of the privileged. Hijacked, he was made over into a militarist, hedonist, and lobbyist….sent prowling the halls of Congress in Guccis, seeking tax breaks and loopholes for the powerful, costly new weapon systems that don’t work, and punitive public policies.

Let’s get Jesus back.

The Jesus who inspired a Methodist ship-caulker named Edward Rogers to crusade across New England for an eight hour work day. Let’s get back the Jesus who caused Frances William to rise up against the sweatshop. The Jesus who called a young priest named John Ryan to champion child labor laws, unemployment insurance, a minimum wage, and decent housing for the poor – ten years before the New Deal. The Jesus in whose name Dorothy Day challenged the Church to march alongside auto workers in Michigan, fishermen and textile workers in Massachusetts, brewery workers in New York, and marble cutters in Vermont. The Jesus in whose name E.B. McKinney and Owen Whitfield challenged a Mississippi system that kept sharecroppers in servitude and debt. The Jesus in whose name a Presbyterian minister named Eugene Carson Blake - “Ike’s Pastor” - was arrested for protesting racial injustice in Baltimore. The Jesus who led Martin Luther King to Memphis to join sanitation workers in their struggle for a decent wage.

That Jesus has been scourged by his own followers, dragged through the streets by pious crowds, and crucified on a cross of privilege.

Mel Gibson missed that.

Mel Gibson stopped short of the whole story. So obsessed with the gore of the crucifixion – he missed the glory of what followed. He didn’t wait for the resurrection – so he missed the power of the Pentecost. We must pick up the story where Mel Gibson stopped. Our times call out for a new spiritual revolution. Our times cry out for a new politics of justice. This is no partisan issue. It doesn’t matter if you’re a liberal or a conservative, God is neither. It doesn’t matter if you’re a Democrat or Republican – God is neither.

To see whose side God is on go to Deuteronomy to read: “Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor…Give liberally and be ungrudging when you do…” Go to the Psalms and read: “For he delivers the needy when they call, the poor and those who have no helper. He has pity on the weak and the needy…From oppression and violence he redeems their life; and precious is their blood in his sight.” Throughout our sacred text it is the widow and the orphan, the poor and the stranger who are blessed in the eyes of the Lord; it is kindness, relief and mercy that prove the power of faith – and justice that measures the worth of state. Poverty and justice are religious issues. Kings are judged on how the poor fare under their rule; prophets speak to the gap between the rich and the poor as a reason for God’s judgment. And Jesus moves among the disinherited. In one of the greatest sermons ever preached we hear from his own lips: “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you gave me clothing. I was sick and you took care of me. I was in prison and you visited me.” Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family you did it to me.” Let’s get Jesus back.

Let’s recover the faith that takes on the corruption of power. A faith that challenges complacency at both parties. If you’re a Democrat, you’re called to shake them up. If you’re a Republican, you’re called to shame them. Jesus drove the money changers from the temple of Jerusalem. We must drive them from the temples of democracy.

But let’s do it in love.

I know it can sound banal and facile to say this. The word “love” gets thrown around too casually these days. “Don’t you just love this?” “I loved that movie.” “I’d love to get away for the weekend.” And brute reality can mock the whole idea of loving one another. We’re still living in the shadow of Dachau and Buchenwald. The smoke still rises above Kosovo and Rwanda, Chechnya and East Timor. The walls of Abu Ghraib still shriek of pain. What has love done you ask? Where is there any real milk of human kindness? But the love I mean is the love described by Reinhold Niebuhr in his book of essays, Justice and Mercy, where he writes: “When we talk about love we have to become mature or we will become sentimental. Basically love means…being responsible, responsibility to our family, toward our civilization, and now by the pressures of history, toward the universe of humankind.”

So let us love our country. But let us remember the words of G.K. Chesterton: “To say my country, right or wrong, is something no patriot would say except in dire emergency; it is like saying, ‘my mother, drunk or sober.’”

Let us love our neighbor, but let’s not allow him to poison our well -- from ignorance or intent. Let us love our enemy, even as we resist his aggression. We cannot defeat the terrorists if we become like them. We cannot stand up to the religious right if we imitate them.

Moyers finds fault with both Republicans and Democrats for the mess we find ourselves in. You can read or listen to his full remarks by clicking here. Hopefully, these comments excerpted here will wet your appetite for more.

George W. Bush is a terrible president and there is no way around saying it. But there is something I want to thank him for. His policies have forced people like Moyers to reflect deeply on their faith and to preach more prophetically. I hope we listen. If we follow God the world can be a better and more just place. Preach, Bill.

After September 11th, there were few people around who thought George W. Bush could be defeated. John Kerry saw the possible. He took an enormous risk and has shown remarkable personal courage in running a campaign with a message that American can do better. Hopefully, on Tuesday night we’ll be celebrating the election of a new president. We are right on the cusp of defeating another Bush administration.

Try and spend the next 48 hours ignoring the fluctuating polls. Turn off the television. Read a book. Listen to some good music. Pray. Escape the moment. Then get your family, friends, neighbors, and any random voters you might know to the polls on Tuesday. Vote. Then sit back and watch the fireworks. Tuesday could be one of the most memorable nights in American history.

Brenda Bartella Peterson made national headlines this summer when she was named the first religious outreach advisor for the Democratic National Committee. Religious right groups quickly denounced her selection and the DNC, in a terrible move, caved to pressure and allowed Peterson to resign.

The Rev. Peterson didn’t stay down for long. She quickly assumed a position in her home state of Kentucky to fight an anti-gay ballot measure. The Courier-Journal reports:

Peterson said her message in Kentucky is the same as when she worked for the national Democratic Party: Conservatives do not have a monopoly on the religious vote.

While conservatives are organizing on issues such as opposition to abortion and homosexuality, she said, many liberals also draw on their faith to mobilize for such issues as economic equality and gay rights.

"On all these justice issues, we turn to the Scriptures too," she said.

Friday, October 29, 2004

Tune: AURELIA 7.6.7.6 D ("The Church's One Foundation")Version of hymn with music, from the United Methodist General Board of Discipleship

A Hymn/Prayer Before Election Day

In times of great decision, Be with us, God, we pray Give each of us a vision Of Jesus' loving way. When louder words seem endless And other voices sure,Remind us of your promise: Your love and truth endure.

O God, whose gifts are countless, You send us bearing peace.You fill our dreams with justice For all communities.You give us global neighbors That all may justly live.May those we choose as leaders Reflect the life you give.

O God, you bridged the distance; You opened wide your door.You call us by our presence To reach to serve the poor.You teach us: Welcome strangers Seek justice on the earth May those we choose as leaders See every person's worth.

You call on every nation To put aside all greed,To care for your creation And for your ones in need,To care for those in prison, For children, for the ill. In times of great decision, may we choose leaders well.

Hymn Note: "In Times of Great Decision" was inspired by "Christian Principles in an Election Year" by the National Council of Churches USA: http://www.ncccusa.org/electionyearprinciplesguide.pdf Carolyn Winfrey Gillette is co- pastor of the Limestone Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, Delaware and author of Gifts of Love: New Hymns for Today's Worship (Geneva Press, 2000). A complete list of her hymns, including for the lectionary year, can be found at http://firstpresby.org/hymnlist.htm

Permission for free one-time use is given for a congregational or ecumenical community service. The above copyright and contact information shall be included when reproducing this hymn in worship bulletins. Thank you. People who want to make a donation for using the hymn may do so online to NCC or Church World Service to support their important work. Please share this hymn (with the above copyright and contact information) with other pastors, church musicians and friends in your community and online. Thank you.

Only in California would the positions of actors make a difference on an issue with scientific, theological, and economic considerations.

"Proposition 71 authorizes tax-free bonds that will provide $300 per year over 10 years to support stem cell research at Californian medical schools, hospitals, and other research facilities," according the supporters.

The United Church of Christ supports stem cell research in general (though I have found no information suggesting the church has endorsed this measure). Much of the dispute about the measure relates to the bonds. California is already borrowing their way out of a financial mess and some voters are concerned the state cannot afford to become involved in stem cell research.

One thing is clear: we do need the research. Hopefully, a new administration in Washington will take office in January that supports new federal spending in this field. I’d vote for this measure if I lived in California, but the federal government should be taking the lead on this and not the states.

Thursday, October 28, 2004

CLEVELAND—Children's Defense Fund (CDF) founder and president Marian Wright Edelman addressed a group at the UCC Church House in Cleveland, saying, "I fervently believe this is the most important election in our lifetime. People of faith need to have our voices heard, as never before, to protect the integrity of our faith and the future of our children."

Edelman's visit to Cleveland was part of a national mobilization effort, targeting voters in faith and social justice communities.

Tuesday, October 26, 2004

Washington, DC—With eight days remaining until Americans will choose their next president, Catholics for a Free Choice (CFFC) has filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service against the Archdiocese of Denver for Archbishop Charles Chaput’s attempts to influence the outcome of the election.

CFFC has called on the IRS to exercise its “immediate action against the Archdiocese of Denver, which has violated its status as a public charity under Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 501(c)(3) by intervening in campaigns for public office.”

Archbishop Chaput, leader of the Archdiocese of Denver, has repeatedly engaged in voter instruction by explicitly urging Catholics to vote against candidates who support abortion rights and embryonic stem cell research. In fourteen of 28 of his columns in the archdiocese’s weekly newspaper, Archbishop Chaput has repeatedly and continuously urged voters to reject candidates opposed to the organization’s views. This publication has been made widely available through the archdiocese website, as well as through traditional print subscriptions. The archbishop has also attempted to influence voters during public speeches, interviews and on Friday, October 22, in an op-ed in the New York Times.

Some of the most pressing issues facing our nation have yet to make it into the political spotlight.

One of the most important is the environment. After rolling back decades of progress on cleaner air and water, our leaders are not being held accountable. Our sponsoring organization, the National Council of Churches USA, wants to run an interfaith message in major newspapers reminding people of the importance of having political leaders who care for God’s earth. Click below to sign the prayer petition and help place it in the newspapers:

NCC’s message reminds Americans that air pollution is warming our planet, poisoning our air, and triggering asthma in our children. That toxic waste blackens our waters and women worry about mercury contamination in the fish they and their children eat. That no forest, mountain, or flatland is sacred or safe from drilling, bulldozing and development. And that the poor and vulnerable suffer first and most.

Our political leaders must act now to protect God’s good earth for current and future generations. Help voice concern for God’s creation by supporting the publication of this statement across the country:

Monday, October 25, 2004

The San Francisco Chronicle published an article today talking about the resurgence of the religious left. The story doesn’t cover any new ground. In fact, the story neglects to mention some of the best know progressive religious voter outreach efforts. It is still a good story, however, and maybe it surprised some San Francisco readers to even learn there was such a thing as the religious left. Click here to read it.

This letter appeared on Sunday in The St. Louis Post Dispatch. It will run again on Tuesday. I was glad for the opportunity to add my name to the list of signers.

As religious leaders from congregations in the St. Louis area, we wish to add our voice to the public dialogue about the future of our city, our state and our nation in this election year. As we see it, religion is being frequently used to justify military aggression, to restrict civil liberties, to support economic policies that favor the rich and to encourage fear of “others.” We believe that our religious traditions teach a far different set of values. Study, prayer, experience and dialogue lead us to affirm the following:

 Because God's blessing is pronounced on peacemakers, we look for
political leaders who seek non-violent solutions to conflict and treat war as a last resort.

 Because God calls us to be advocates for those who are most vulnerable in society, we look for political leaders who work for economic justice and attempt to reduce the growing disparity between rich and poor.

 Because each person is created in the image of God and is of infinite worth, we look for political leaders who actively promote racial justice and celebrate this nation's racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity.

 Because the earth belongs to God and is intrinsically good, we look for political leaders who affirm the human responsibility to protect God's creation.

 Because people around the globe are related in God's one human family, we look for political leaders who regard AIDS in Africa, to take only one example, as an urgent concern.

 Because one of God's commandments is to welcome strangers, we look for political leaders who uphold fair immigration policies and speak out against the fear of those who are "different."

 Because every neighbor, as a child of God, deserves opportunity for fullness of life, we look for political leaders who support first-rate public education for all students and promote adequate, affordable health care for all citizens.

 Because God calls the human family to live in community, we look for political leaders who strive to eliminate the violence and despair that erode community life in America's cities.

 Because all persons can be transformed by the power of God's love, we look for political leaders who champion restorative justice, not capital punishment, and who seek to change a penal system that perpetuates oppression of African-Americans.

 Because our traditions admonish us not to bear false witness, we look for political leaders who conduct their campaigns according to principles of fairness, honesty, and integrity.

We offer these affirmations as a basis for conversation and as a possible framework for evaluating candidates and policies in this election season.

Sunday, October 24, 2004

Because of a deep and growing concern about an emerging "theology of war" in the White House, the increasingly frequent language of "righteous empire," and official claims of "divine appointment" for a nation and president in the "war" on terrorism, I have joined with several theologians and ethicists in writing the following statement. A climate in which violence is too easily accepted, and the roles of God, church, and nation too easily confused calls for a new "confession" of Christ. The statement names five key points of Jesus' teachings, while rejecting false teachings that nullify his message. It has been signed by more than 200 theologians and ethicists - many of them from theologically conservative seminaries and Christian colleges. We share it with you and ask that you send it to friends and present it to your churches if you resonate with its concerns and convictions.

Confessing Christ in a World of Violence

Our world is wracked with violence and war. But Jesus said: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God" (Matt. 5:9). Innocent people, at home and abroad, are increasingly threatened by terrorist attacks. But Jesus said: "Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you" (Matt. 5:44). These words, which have never been easy, seem all the more difficult today.

Nevertheless, a time comes when silence is betrayal. How many churches have heard sermons on these texts since the terrorist atrocities of September 11? Where is the serious debate about what it means to confess Christ in a world of violence? Does Christian "realism" mean resigning ourselves to an endless future of "pre-emptive wars"? Does it mean turning a blind eye to torture and massive civilian casualties? Does it mean acting out of fear and resentment rather than intelligence and restraint?

Faithfully confessing Christ is the church's task, and never more so than when its confession is co-opted by militarism and nationalism.

- A "theology of war," emanating from the highest circles of American government, is seeping into our churches as well.

- The language of "righteous empire" is employed with growing frequency.

- The roles of God, church, and nation are confused by talk of an American "mission" and "divine appointment" to "rid the world of evil."

The security issues before our nation allow no easy solutions. No one has a monopoly on the truth. But a policy that rejects the wisdom of international consultation should not be baptized by religiosity. The danger today is political idolatry exacerbated by the politics of fear.

In this time of crisis, we need a new confession of Christ.

1. Jesus Christ, as attested in Holy Scripture, knows no national boundaries. Those who confess his name are found throughout the earth. Our allegiance to Christ takes priority over national identity. Whenever Christianity compromises with empire, the gospel of Christ is discredited.

We reject the false teaching that any nation-state can ever be described with the words, "the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it." These words, used in scripture, apply only to Christ. No political or religious leader has the right to twist them in the service of war.

2. Christ commits Christians to a strong presumption against war. The wanton destructiveness of modern warfare strengthens this obligation. Standing in the shadow of the Cross, Christians have a responsibility to count the cost, speak out for the victims, and explore every alternative before a nation goes to war. We are committed to international cooperation rather than unilateral policies.

We reject the false teaching that a war on terrorism takes precedence over ethical and legal norms. Some things ought never be done - torture, the deliberate bombing of civilians, the use of indiscriminate weapons of mass destruction - regardless of the consequences.

3. Christ commands us to see not only the splinter in our adversary's eye, but also the beam in our own. The distinction between good and evil does not run between one nation and another, or one group and another. It runs straight through every human heart.

We reject the false teaching that America is a "Christian nation," representing only virtue, while its adversaries are nothing but vicious. We reject the belief that America has nothing to repent of, even as we reject that it represents most of the world's evil. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23).

4. Christ shows us that enemy-love is the heart of the gospel. While we were yet enemies, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8, 10). We are to show love to our enemies even as we believe God in Christ has shown love to us and the whole world. Enemy-love does not mean capitulating to hostile agendas or domination. It does mean refusing to demonize any human being created in God's image.

We reject the false teaching that any human being can be defined as outside the law's protection. We reject the demonization of perceived enemies, which only paves the way to abuse; and we reject the mistreatment of prisoners, regardless of supposed benefits to their captors.

5. Christ teaches us that humility is the virtue befitting forgiven sinners. It tempers all political disagreements, and it allows that our own political perceptions, in a complex world, may be wrong.

We reject the false teaching that those who are not for the United States politically are against it or that those who fundamentally question American policies must be with the "evil-doers." Such crude distinctions, especially when used by Christians, are expressions of the Manichaean heresy, in which the world is divided into forces of absolute good and absolute evil.

The Lord Jesus Christ is either authoritative for Christians, or he is not. His Lordship cannot be set aside by any earthly power. His words may not be distorted for propagandistic purposes. No nation-state may usurp the place of God.

We believe that acknowledging these truths is indispensable for followers of Christ. We urge them to remember these principles in making their decisions as citizens. Peacemaking is central to our vocation in a troubled world where Christ is Lord.

Saturday, October 23, 2004

A few of George W. Bush’s relatives (people I’m thinking won’t be invited to the White House Christmas Party this year) have started a new web site: Bush Relatives For Kerry.

Jeanny House (Wisconsin): I'm voting for John Kerry because I'm a Christian. I know that my second cousin, George Bush, claims that he is the anointed leader of the American people and that God told him to run for office. I believe he may even believe that. I don't.

My Christian faith leads me to a concern for the poor and the marginalized, yet Bush's actions in office have repeatedly cut funding for health care, aid to failing schools, jobs programs, after school programs, Head Start, and many more services that provide real help and hope to those living in poverty. Under the Bush administration, over a million additional people have dropped below the poverty line. 1.2 million more have gone into "deep poverty," which is one-half the $18,810 for a family of four that defines "poverty."

My Christian faith leads me to a concern for the health and welfare of all of God's people, yet 45 million people in this country have no health insurance. The Bush administration, working hard to protect the interests of large, rich insurance companies, has done nothing to address the real health care crisis.

My Christian faith tells me the peacemakers are the blessed ones, yet George Bush wants to resurrect the Crusades, one of the most shameful experiences in Christian history. I fail to understand how lying to the people of the United States about any of the many justifications they have used for going to war in Iraq can be considered in any way, shape, or form a remotely Christian activity. Yes, Jesus once said, "I come not to bring peace, but a sword." He was talking about liberating his OWN people from within, not invading an oil-rich country out of purely selfish motives, then claiming it was for the liberation of others. The only true liberation comes when the oppressed claim it for themselves. This is something George Bush and his Imperialist cabal will never understand.

My Christian faith moves toward greater inclusiveness and acceptance, George Bush moves toward punishment, division, and exclusion. My Christian faith seeks to bring people into the circle of decision-making, George Bush seeks to keep them out. My Christian faith seeks to afford equal rights and responsibilities to all, George Bush seeks to reserve more rights for the privileged few.

My Christian faith is not looking for a new Messiah named George Bush.

I am, however, looking for a leader. I believe that leader's name is John Kerry.

Lord of the past
From one clot of blood you formed every race and culture
And we chose to gather as nations.
But did you ever imagine a life-time election
As priest and prophet in a stateless state:

As the Word who expressed Isaiah’s word,
You were no studied mouthpiece for corporate ballots,
You took no popular polls, admitted no party allegiances,
Danced no inaugural balls,
And held no debates, but spoke truth telling parables.
By the spirit’s triune unction
You became modest enough not to escape the miseries of life,
convicted enough for the poor to save face,
alive enough to outlive Herod’s bloodletting regime
and powerful enough to promise an end to Caesar’s client empire.

Lord of the present, when the White House is our world’s largest gated community,
When we mistake flags for sacraments,
Convention speeches for Scripture,
And illegal wars for leaning on the everlasting arms;
When we prefer mass branding which glues us to telegenic emperors,
When we choose national leaders by corporate proxy,
Who predict Gospel prosperity the plantation size of Walmart;
When we by anything, but value nothing,
And shelve our souls wall to wall in the process –
God, remind us that your yoke is easy and your call without deceit,
To be in friendship with those whom you elected for life –
The poor, the immigrant, the sick, the widowed, the child.

Lord of the future,
May we believe what we sing so well, “Elect from every nation”
And with a relaxed heart commit ourselves to a lifetime of action
As citizens of no one nation,
But only to your ever expanding kin-dom,
Favoring national repentance over calculated remorse,
Vigilance for earth stewardship over stiff-necked ownership,
Health care for all over sugar high promises without cost,
Living wages over weapons of mass destruction,
A new quality of freedom in commitment over myths of national scarcity.

God, give us an election that is not of our own choosing,
In the jubilee path of Mary and Ruth, Esther and Martha.
For your movement of grace reaches farther than your justice,
And your mercy is offered without bias or bounds.

Thursday, October 21, 2004

October 20, 2004, NEW YORK CITY -- Over two dozen leading moderate and progressive faith organizations and leaders, including the National Council of Churches USA and its General Secretary, the Rev. Dr. Robert W. Edgar, launched their first ever coordinated national "Get Out the Vote" campaign today. Thousands of volunteers and 100 phone banks have already been mobilized to call one million newly registered voters before Election Day.

The "Vote ALL Your Values" campaign connects people of faith to a database of millions of low-income, minority, and youth voters. Another 20,000 volunteers have been trained for Get Out the Vote and election monitoring efforts on Election Day.

The "Vote ALL Your Values" message is largely in response to religious groups who have suggested that Americans should vote based on a few hot button values issues, organizers said.

"Vote ALL Your Values is our message to Americans in this time of moral urgency," said Dr. Edgar.B "We can't afford to sacrifice our sacred values of truth, justice and community to a narrow ideological agenda advanced by a few vocal religious groups," he added.

Said Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy, President of The Interfaith Alliance, "At stake in this year's elections is the fate of virtually every issue of social-moral-political significance to religious communities - civil rights, foreign policy, fair housing, taxation, religious liberty, economic justice, education, poverty, health care, and the future for our nation's children.B We must not ignore the moral urgency of this moment."

This campaign caps the most intense year in decades for moderate-to-progressive religious activism, highlighted by:

-- $1 million raised to run ads in over 100 newspaper and radio outlets for "God is not a Republican. Or a Democrat," "Life Does Not End at Birth," and Church Folks for a Better America ad campaigns;
-- Over 450,000 voters registered through the National Council of Churches, Center for Community Change, the Gamaliel Foundation and the Interfaith Alliance;
-- A doubling in the membership of moderate-to-progressive online religious advocacy networks to over 400,000 activists - primarily for Sojourners and the launch of FaithfulAmerica.org;
-- Over 1 million voter guides distributed by Catholic, Protestant and evangelical groups;
-- More than 700 major faith gatherings around the country, including a 30-city Bus Tour in October that reached thousands with the message that ending poverty is a religious and political issue, and a 15-city "Let Justice Roll: Faith and Community Voices Against Poverty" campaign June-October.

"The era of the Religious Right's dominance over faith and politics is over," said Jim Wallis, editor of Sojourners magazine. "Progressive voices are making themselves heard. We will not allow a conservative partisan minority to tell us how to vote and how to interpret our faith. We will vote on all our values."

"Vote ALL Your Values" is the first non-partisan, virtual get out the vote campaign. It allows faith volunteers anywhere in the country to log into the virtual phone bank, receive phone numbers and scripts, and record responses.

One volunteer, Eric Thal, explained his decision to start making calls: "I believe in a democracy that believes in compassion. We're all children of God and we should have a democracy that works for everyone, not just a few."

Institutional sponsors of the campaign include People for the American Way, Progressive Christians United, Let Justice Roll, FaithfulAmerica.org, the Center for American Progress, The Riverside Church and Mobilization 2004, African American Minister Leadership Council, Pax Christi, Lift Every Voice, the People of Faith Network, Catholics for the Common Good, The National Council of Churches USA, Sojourners, Call to Renewal, The Interfaith Alliance, Network Catholic Social Justice Lobby, The Alliance of Baptists, Res Publica, and Kol Tikvah.

Iran (charter member of the Axis of Evil) thinks they have an ally in George W. Bush. The Associated Press reports:

TEHRAN, Iran -- The head of Iran's security council said Tuesday that the re-election of President Bush was in Tehran's best interests, despite the administration's "axis of evil" label, accusations that Iran harbors al-Qaida terrorists and threats of sanctions for the country's nuclear ambitions.

Historically, Democrats have harmed Iran more than Republicans, said Hasan Rowhani, head of the Supreme National Security Council, Iran's top security decision-making body.

"We haven't seen anything good from Democrats," Rowhani told state-run television in remarks that, for the first time in decades, saw Iran openly supporting one U.S. presidential candidate over another.

Though Iran generally does not publicly wade into U.S. presidential politics, it has a history of preferring Republicans over Democrats, who tend to press human rights issues.

"We do not desire to see Democrats take over," Rowhani said when asked whether Iran was supporting Democratic Sen. John Kerry against Bush.

My purpose in writing the book was to communicate loud and clear that I felt that evangelical Christianity had been hijacked.

When did it become anti-feminist? When did evangelical Christianity become anti-gay? When did it become supportive of capital punishment? Pro-war? When did it become so negative towards other religious groups?

There are a group of evangelicals who would say, "Wait a minute. We’re evangelicals but we want to respect Islam. We don’t want to call its prophet evil. We don’t want to call the religion evil. We believe that we have got to learn to live in the same world with our Islamic brothers and sisters and we want to be friends. We do not want to be in some kind of a holy war."

We also raise some very serious questions about the support of policies that have been detrimental to the poor. When I read the voter guide of a group like the Christian Coalition, I find that they are allied with the National Rifle Association and are very anxious to protect the rights of people to buy even assault weapons. But they don’t seem to be very supportive of concerns for the poor, concerns for trade relations, for canceling Third World debts.

Campolo is one of those evangelical Christians who will be voting for John Kerry next month. He wants a president more concerned about the needs of the poor and the environment. So do I.

Tuesday, October 19, 2004

One difference between God and George W. Bush (and this is among multitudes of differences) is that God is willing to change God’s mind and the president makes no mistakes and sees no reason to change course even when the world is burning around him.

Ron Suskind illustrates the faith-inspired stubborn streak that Bush maintains in an article published this weekend in The New York Times Magazine. “Without a Doubt” doesn’t break a lot of new ground. Bush’s faith is well documented. But this article has some good stories to tell.

Bush employs a theology in which he believes that he personally is an instrument of God sent to lead the free word. Bush speaks for God. In office, Suskind writes, this belief has allowed him to grow more isolated:

On Feb. 1, 2002, Jim Wallis of the Sojourners stood in the Roosevelt Room for the introduction of Jim Towey as head of the president's faith-based and community initiative. John DiIulio, the original head, had left the job feeling that the initiative was not about ''compassionate conservatism,'' as originally promised, but rather a political giveaway to the Christian right, a way to consolidate and energize that part of the base.

Moments after the ceremony, Bush saw Wallis. He bounded over and grabbed the cheeks of his face, one in each hand, and squeezed. ''Jim, how ya doin', how ya doin'!'' he exclaimed. Wallis was taken aback. Bush excitedly said that his massage therapist had given him Wallis's book, ''Faith Works.'' His joy at seeing Wallis, as Wallis and others remember it, was palpable -- a president, wrestling with faith and its role at a time of peril, seeing that rare bird: an independent counselor. Wallis recalls telling Bush he was doing fine, '''but in the State of the Union address a few days before, you said that unless we devote all our energies, our focus, our resources on this war on terrorism, we're going to lose.' I said, 'Mr. President, if we don't devote our energy, our focus and our time on also overcoming global poverty and desperation, we will lose not only the war on poverty, but we'll lose the war on terrorism.''' Bush replied that that was why America needed the leadership of Wallis and other members of the clergy.

''No, Mr. President,'' Wallis says he told Bush, ''We need your leadership on this question, and all of us will then commit to support you. Unless we drain the swamp of injustice in which the mosquitoes of terrorism breed, we'll never defeat the threat of terrorism.''

Bush looked quizzically at the minister, Wallis recalls. They never spoke again after that.

''When I was first with Bush in Austin, what I saw was a self-help Methodist, very open, seeking,'' Wallis says now. ''What I started to see at this point was the man that would emerge over the next year -- a messianic American Calvinist. He doesn't want to hear from anyone who doubts him.''

The roll-call of problems faced by our country is enormous. The war in Iraq is going very poorly. Millions of Americans have lost their health insurance under the Bush Administration. Poverty rates are increasing after nearly a decade of steady declines. And this President has such strong faith in himself that he cannot admit to one mistake while in office. Maybe he could learn something from the Bible.

After the slaves had been freed from bondage in Egypt they began their long journey to the Promised Land. At one point the people became concerned when Moses was delayed returning from the mountain with God. They turned to Aaaron for leadership. Aaaron quickly had the people build an image of a golden calf to worship. God was not happy that the people he had just spent freeing from slavery were so quick to turn away. The next thing you know God is so angry that God is planning on destroying the people.

11 But Moses implored the LORD his God, and said, O LORD, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 12Why should the Egyptians say, It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people. 13Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it for ever. 14And the LORD changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.

- Exodus 32:11-14 (NRSV)

Yes, confronted with evidence even God is willing to change God’s mind. This is a Bible study lesson someone should try and teach the president before his ill-placed faith leads to even more disaster. This is a message for us all.

Monday, October 18, 2004

George W. Bush and Dick Cheney are both members of the United Methodist Church. The policies they advocate have some United Methodists claiming that the president and vice-president are working against church teaching. A group of them are circulating a “Letter of Complaint” to UMC officials demanding that Bush and Cheney either repent or leave the church:

We, the undersigned, do hold that George W. Bush, a member of Park Hill United Methodist Church (UMC) in Dallas, Texas, and Dick Cheney (local membership unknown) are undeniably guilty of at least four chargeable offenses for lay members as listed in 2702.3 of the 2000 Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church. These offenses are: crime, immorality, disobedience to the Order and Discipline of The UMC, and dissemination of doctrine contrary to the established standards of doctrine of The UMC. For these offenses, we the undersigned call for an immediate and public act of repentance by the respondents. If the respondents do not reply with sincere and public repentance for their crimes, we demand that their membership in the United Methodist Church be revoked until such time that they sincerely and publicly repent.

Bush comes out on the opposite side of several important issues supported by the United Methodist Church. He opposes the positions (in full or in part) taken by the church on abortion, bioethics, civil rights, the death plenty, support for public education, energy resources, environmental protections, the needs of gays and lesbians, social security, taxation, trade, and the war on terror. Kerry’s positions are closer to those adopted by the United Methodists.

Beginning last spring and continuing through the past month, First UMC has sponsored forums on the topic of same-sex marriage, with the aim of engaging our congregation in dialogue (or as John Wesley might put it, "holy conferencing") on a timely issue that also commands our attention in November's election.

Last spring, a general session on the same-sex marriage garnered a large attendance. Just a few weeks ago we revisited the issue with a more specific presentation about the pros and cons of Ballot Measure 36 (which qualified for November's ballot after our spring forum). Then on September 19 members of First UMC gathered for a time of prayer and spiritual reflection, engaging in the discipline of spiritual discernment to ask the question: “What is God's will for our congregation on this topic?”

Reflecting on these events and the outcomes of the discernment process, the Leadership Council at its September 22 meeting approved this resolution:

We are United Methodists who believe that our Christian faith demands social justice and equality. We confess that as a body we are not of one mind on the right to marry or the definition of marriage, and we seek to discern God's will for us and our human relationships. However, we oppose any state or federal constitutional amendments or laws that would deny equal protections, equal rights, the enumerated privileges or immunities guaranteed by the constitution to citizens regardless of race, creed, religion, gender, or sexual orientation. Therefore, we recommend a No vote on Ballot Measure 36, which seeks to amend the Oregon Constitution by defining legal marriage as being only between a man and a woman.

This resolution was considered and voted upon after considerable dialogue and prayer. Key to the Leadership Council's action was, first, an acknowledgment of First UMC's historic and longstanding support of civil rights. And at the same time, the Leadership Council also recognized that this question engenders other opinions, varying and also valid. Reconciling these two points of views resulted in the language you read above. Briefly, here's how to understand the Leadership Council's action on behalf of our congregation: We endorse equal civil rights for everyone. We are not yet of one mind on the question of same-sex marriage. We turn to God to discern God's will for us. In the meantime, we reject the human measures that would interfere with our discernment. We earnestly seek to continue our
prayer and study.

Such a result likely will not surprise most United Methodists. After all, John Wesley pretty much suggested as much: On essential matters of Christian belief, he preached, Methodists are united; but on non-essential matters, he added, Methodists “think, and let think.” And, he said, they pray. Even today, as we attend to current issues and headlines, our heritage of relying on Scripture, tradition, reason and experience continues to be relevant, it thrives, and it indwells still in our every act.

Thursday, October 14, 2004

Calling it a case of "journalistic malpractice," National Council of Churches General Secretary Bob Edgar Thursday challenged the content and conclusions of a U.S. News & World Report columnist who had suggested the Council's criticisms of the government of Israel were "anti-Semitic." Edgar, in a letter to the magazine's editor-in-chief Mortimer Zuckerman, pointed out that columnist John Leo, in the October 18 U.S. News edition now on newsstands, had wrongly attacked as biased criticism by four American Protestant churches and two ecumenical bodies (the NCC and World Council of Churches) of human rights actions by both Israeli and U.S. governments. Leo had obtained his information from a conservative political group, the Institute on Religion & Democracy (IRD), but no one called the NCC -- nor, apparently, the other bodies' leaders -- to check the accuracy of the IRD's "findings," which Edgar called "grievously off the mark." Read more.

Wednesday, October 13, 2004

George W. Bush said tonight that he wanted to create a “culture of life” in America. That is his way of saying he wants to outlaw the practice of abortion. No one, not even Roe v Wade supporters, want abortion to be a common practice. Unfortunately, under the Bush Administration abortions have increased.

Dr. Glen Stassen is the Lewis B. Smedes Professor of Christian Ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary, and the co-author of Kingdom Ethics: Following Jesus in Contemporary Context, Christianity Today's Book of the Year in theology or ethics. In an e-mail sent out today by Sojourners Magazine he wrote:

I am a Christian ethicist, and trained in statistical analysis. I am consistently pro-life. My son David is one witness. For my family, "pro-life" is personal. My wife caught rubella in the eighth week of her pregnancy. We decided not to terminate, to love and raise our baby. David is legally blind and severely handicapped; he also is a blessing to us and to the world.

I look at the fruits of political policies more than words. I analyzed the data on abortion during the George W. Bush presidency. There is no single source for this information - federal reports go only to 2000, and many states do not report - but I found enough data to identify trends. My findings are counterintuitive and disturbing.

Abortion was decreasing. When President Bush took office, the nation's abortion rates were at a 24-year low, after a 17.4% decline during the 1990s. This was an average decrease of 1.7% per year, mostly during the latter part of the decade. (This data comes from Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life using the Guttmacher Institute's studies).

Enter George W. Bush in 2001. One would expect the abortion rate to continue its consistent course downward, if not plunge. Instead, the opposite happened.

I found three states that have posted multi-year statistics through 2003, and abortion rates have risen in all three: Kentucky's increased by 3.2% from 2000 to 2003. Michigan's increased by 11.3% from 2000 to 2003. Pennsylvania's increased by 1.9% from 1999 to 2002. I found 13 additional states that reported statistics for 2001 and 2002. Eight states saw an increase in abortion rates (14.6% average increase), and five saw a decrease (4.3% average decrease).

Under President Bush, the decade-long trend of declining abortion rates appears to have reversed. Given the trends of the 1990s, 52,000 more abortions occurred in the United States in 2002 than would have been expected before this change of direction.

How could this be? I see three contributing factors:

First, two thirds of women who abort say they cannot afford a child (Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life Web site). In the past three years, unemployment rates increased half again. Not since Hoover had there been a net loss of jobs during a presidency until the current administration. Average real incomes decreased, and for seven years the minimum wage has not been raised to match inflation. With less income, many prospective mothers fear another mouth to feed.

Second, half of all women who abort say they do not have a reliable mate (Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life). Men who are jobless usually do not marry. Only three of the 16 states had more marriages in 2002 than in 2001, and in those states abortion rates decreased. In the 16 states overall, there were 16,392 fewer marriages than the year before, and 7,869 more abortions. As male unemployment increases, marriages fall and abortion rises.

Third, women worry about health care for themselves and their children. Since 5.2 million more people have no health insurance now than before this presidency - with women of childbearing age overrepresented in those 5.2 million - abortion increases.

The U.S. Catholic Bishops warned of this likely outcome if support for families with children was cut back. My wife and I know - as does my son David - that doctors, nurses, hospitals, medical insurance, special schooling, and parental employment are crucial for a special child. David attended the Kentucky School for the Blind, as well as several schools for children with cerebral palsy and other disabilities. He was mainstreamed in public schools as well. We have two other sons and five grandchildren, and we know that every mother, father, and child needs public and family support.

What does this tell us? Economic policy and abortion are not separate issues; they form one moral imperative. Rhetoric is hollow, mere tinkling brass, without health care, health insurance, jobs, child care, and a living wage. Pro-life in deed, not merely in word, means we need policies that provide jobs and health insurance and support for prospective mothers.

Don’t think for a minute that Fuller Theological Seminary is a liberal institution. They train some of the best know conservative evangelical pastors in the country. Professors there are required to sign a statement of faith that puts them at the very conservative end of the American theological spectrum. Yet I share the concern that Dr. Stassen has raised.

Under the Clinton years we saw fewer abortions, less teen pregnancy, lower drug use rates, and a decrease in poverty. That is the same world view that John Kerry articulated in all three debates. The truth is that Senator Kerry offers a fundamentally stronger pro-life agenda than the man who claims to want a “culture of life.”

For Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, the highest-ranking Roman Catholic prelate in Colorado, there is only one way for a faithful Catholic to vote in this presidential election, for President Bush and against Senator John Kerry.

"The church says abortion is a foundational issue,'' the archbishop explained to a group of Catholic college students gathered in a sports bar here in this swing state on Friday night. He stopped short of telling them whom to vote for, but he reminded them of Mr. Kerry's support for abortion rights. And he pointed out the potential impact his re-election could have on Roe v. Wade…..

Catholic prelates have publicly clashed with Catholic Democrats like former Gov. Mario M. Cuomo of New York and Geraldine A. Ferraro, the former representative and vice-presidential candidate.

But never before have so many bishops so explicitly warned Catholics so close to an election that to vote a certain way was to commit a sin.

Less than two weeks ago, Archbishop Raymond L. Burke of St. Louis issued just such a statement. Bishop Michael J. Sheridan of Colorado Springs and Archbishop John J. Myers of Newark have both recently declared that the obligation to oppose abortion outweighs any other issue.

Not all Catholics agree and polls have shown that Catholic voters, like the rest of the country, are nearly evenly divided between the two candidates.

Liberal Catholics contend that the church has traditionally left weighing the issues to the individual conscience. Late in the campaign, these Catholics have begun to mount a counterattack, belatedly and with far fewer resources.

In diocesan newspapers in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia, they are buying advertisements with the slogan "Life Does Not End at Birth." Organizers of the campaign say it is supported by 200 Catholic organizations, among them orders of nuns and brothers.

"We are looking at a broader picture, a more global picture," said Bishop Gabino Zavala, an auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles who is president of Pax Christi USA, a Catholic peace group that initiated the statement. "If you look at the totality of issues as a matter of conscience, someone could come to the decision to vote for either candidate."

Pax Christi USA is not an official body of the Roman Catholic Church. Many of their members are certainly pro-life but they are asking voters to consider all the issues. That is appropriate and good advice.

This picture is one that I took outside of John Kerry’s rally here in St. Louis after the last presidential debate. It shows seminary students protesting Kerry’s position on abortion. I’m the last person who would ever criticize the right of religious leaders to express their own personal political beliefs. However, separation of church and state is a fundamentally important Constitutional principle and churches (like all non-profits) are prohibited from engaging in partisan political campaigns. It seems clear that some Catholic leaders are doing just that on behalf of Bush and that church resources are being used to pay for it. You have to ask why only pro-choice democrats are being targeted while pro-choice republicans are ignored. A Justice Department investigation would seem to be in order. Unfortunately, we have an attorney general who clearly doesn’t hold the Constitution in high regard.

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